stephenson



' (No Model.) 2 -SheetsShee.t 1.

J; STEPHENSON. CABLE OAR TRUCK.

No. 403,394. Patented May 14, 1889.

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. J. STEPHENSON. GABLE OAR TRUCK.

No. 403,394. Patented May 14, 1889. Y

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN STEPHENSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CABLE-CAR TRUCK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 403,394, dated May 14,1889. Application filed July 20, 1888. Serial No. 280,508. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, JOHN STEPHENsON,a citizen of the United States,residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Cable-Oar Trucks, of which thefollowing is a specification.

That a cable-grip car may be pleasant to passengers it is necessary thecar-body be free from the cable-grip and desirable that thewheel-brakes, track-brakes, and trackgua-rds be detached from thecar-body. Efficient wheel-brakes are always desirable, but especiallywith a cable motor, for the cars move with more velocity and thefriction of the constantly-moving cable is impulsive to the car.Therefore the brakes should be powerful and quick of action; butaswheel-brakes cannot hold cars on steep grades additional or track brakesare necessary and are most efficient when secured to a truck havingfixed elevation above the tram-rails.

It is important to guard from harm passengers and others using thestreets; but vertical variations of an easy-riding car have detractedfrom the success of any device attached to the car-body for suchpurpose, because the guards should have a span beyond the width of thecar-track and be near the surface of the rails and pavement and beuncontrolled by the movement of the car-body, but have apossibility ofbeing forced upward to overcome obstacles, as stones, ice, or othersurmountable obstructions.

Cable tramways are usually constructed with the slot-rail parallel withthe tram-rail; but in practice the four car-wheels form corners of arectangle in position on the rails, so that when passing curves thecentral longitudinal line of the car-floor does not accord with the lineof the slot-rail, and therefore the grip must be so suspended as to becapable of transverse motion controlled by the slot. As the cable hasfrequently to be thrown out and again restored to the grip, it isdesirable that the grip be located at a fixed elevation in accordancewith the cable, and therefore it is essential that the grip be notattached to the car-body resting on springs, but to some part of the carstructure, which will be unvarying in its altitude. When the grip seizesthe cable rashly, the car is started into motion with a jerk, which isdetrimental to the car structure and discomforting to passengers. It istherefore desirable that these effects be neutralized or ameliorated.The grip needs to be frequently removed from the car, requiring to beeasy of access, with freedom of space for handling, and with facilitiesfor attaching, securing, and detaching. Therefore there should be openspace in the car-floor and a like space in the car-truck, with theopening lengthwise greater than the longest part of the grip. That thegrip may be held in invariable elevation with the cable the grip-holders are supported by stay-rods, which cross the truck beneath theholders, with the ends of the stays in saddled sockets resting on thesills without capability of losing position, and the stay ends withscrewnuts adapted to adjustment.

To meet the various requirements I have invented a car-truck or carriagepart, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in Which Figure 1 is aplan View of my improved truck. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation on line2 2, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional elevation on line 3 3,Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is an edge View of one of the wheels, showing theboxshells and rail and sill in section.

The carriage part of the truck is suspended outside the car-wheels bythe regular axlejournals 1 of the axles 2, with ordinary axleboxes, 3,their shells having pendent limbs 4, to which are attached the fourcorners of the carriage of the car-truck, with the truck-sills 5extending beyond the axle-boxes and forming cat-heads or supports forguards which spread over the track and rails in front of the wheels. Thecentral part of the sills supports the part of the truck structure whichcarries the grip, wheel-brake, and track-brake.

Though modifications of the truck-frame may be admissible, the followingelements will make a structure which will be found satisfactory: twosills, 5 5, for sides; two subsills, (3 6, neXt adjoining the sills; twocheeksills, 7 7, one at each side of the grip well 0c,- two endcross-bars, 8 8; four short central cross-bars, 9 9 9 9, andsill-blocks, not absolutely necessary, because the sills may be Wideenough not to need the blocks.

The two separated sills 5 5 are placed each framed atproper localitiesto connect the sills and cheek-sills, and these four short crossbarscarry the sub-sills 6 6 at proper distances from-the sills.

At each end of the truck is the end crossbar, 8, holding in properadjustment the ends of the cheek and sub sills. These end crossbarsderive their support in part from the sub-sills, but chiefly fromresting on stay-rods 14 14c, crossing from'side to side of the truck,

with the ends of the rods in sockets 13 on the sills 5, and the rods areadjustable in the sockets by nuts 16. As the well-hole rfor the grip islonger than the distance between the sockets at either side, thesupporting-stays at their central part are deflected endward of thetruck, and thus retained and prevented.

from return by stops 15 in the form of socketed plates at the under sideof the cheek- The sills outside the wheels and the.

sills. sub-sills inside are adapted to the mechanism of the wheel-brakeand also to the trackbrake. The head ends of the wheel-brake shoe-bars,with their shoes, of any suitable construction, rest on the shortcross-bars 9 of the truck between the sills and the sub-sills. The tailends of the shoe-brake bars have freedom for end motion in keeperssecured to inner sides of the sill, and on the upper side of thesesills, at each side of the truck, is located a suitable rock-shaftadapted to receive the energy of the operator and transmit it to thebrake-shoe. In like manner the sills and sub-sills are adapted toreceive the bearings of rock-shafts of the track-brake and guides forits track-shoes. sills may be utilized for carrying a trackclearer.

The grip is sustained in its well by socketconnection with a gripsliding bar having freedom for horizontal motion. Above the grip-socketis a key to prevent the grip end from rising. The grip sliding bars arebelow the cheek-sills 7. These sills have each a bottom plate, 17, andbelow these plates the grip slide-bars are retained by keepers 18,allowing to the slide-bar freedom for horizontal motion. These slidingbars have at their outer edges eyes or means for connection with thedraw-head spring adapted to relieve the jerk of the grip when it seizesthe cable.

For convenience in supporting the wheelbrake, each sill has on its uppersurface a sill block, 19, giving more height to the sill-top, on whichto locate a brake rock-shaft having So, also, extension of the threearms, one of which receives the energy of the operator, and each. of theother two transmits the energy of its shoe-bar, holding and moving theshoe. Each shoe-bar rests on one of the central short cross-bars, 9,with capability of motion endwise through its keeper.

The track-brake is located below the shoebrake, its two rock-shaftshaving their journals atone end supported by the truck-sills and at theother end by the sub-sills, the truck-sills also holding the guideswhich direct' the'verticalrmotion of the track-shoes. The ends ofthetruck-sills may be extended beyond the axle-boxes and adapted toconnection with a track-guard. These ends may be strengthened byconnecting the two by a bolt in the rail or by any other known method.

The truck-frame is attached to the axleboxes by the sill-extensions 20,which pass below the pendants 4 of the axle-box shells and are fastenedby clips 21, having their screw-nuts beneath, and a plate-coupler, 22,Fig. 4, combining the four shanks of the two clips, and the two edges ofthe plates of sufficient length beyond the clip-shanks to be bentdownward, forming a protecting-flange, 23, outside of the clip-nuts. Toprevent displacement of the sills and axle-boxes, a horizontal bolt, 24,runs through each sill and shell. pendant, holding the connection,although the clips should be loose.

Racking-stays to prevent the truck from being forced out of square areprovided by four bolts, 25, crossing the four angles of the truck, thebolt-heads being outside the sills at the cross-bars and the nuts on thecentral face of the cheek-sills.

I have not herein illustrated the gripping mechanism and brake-shoes andoperating and connected mechanism as applied to my 7 improved truck, asthe same are fully set forth in separate applications for LettersPatent, Serial Nos. 280,509, 280,510, 280,512, 280,513, 280,630, and280,631.

I claim 1. A car-truck frame constructed with the following elementsadapted to suspension beneath the car-axle boxes, to wit: two sills, twosub-sills, two cheek-sills, two end cross-bars, and four centralcross-bars, substantiallyas and for the purpose described.

2. A carhaving a truck-frame with its sills outside of the wheels, thesills being rigidly connected to integral limbs pendent from the bottomof the axle-box shell, the pendent limbs being adapted to transmit tothe carbody the motive power which impels the car, substantially asdescribed.

3. A cartruck having its two sills suspended from pendent limbs of theaxle-box shell, two sub-sills inside the wheels and parallel to thesills, and two cheek-sills, also parallel, but located nearer the centerline of the truck, two end cross-bars framed on the ends of the subsillsand cheek-sills, and, with the cheek-sills, constituting the four wallsof a well adapted to receive and permit the motion of the grip,substantially as and for th e purpose described.

4:. A car-truck with its sills outside the wheels and its centralstructure upheld by supporting-rods having their ends carried by thesills and the central parts of the rods deflected to pass under the endsof the sub-sills and cheek-sills, substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

5. A car-truck with its sills outside the wheels and the central part ofthe truck structure supported at its ends by deflected supporting-rodshaving their ends in sockets carried by the sills, substantially asshown and described.

6. A car-truck frame with sills, sub-sills, cheek-sills, and cross-barspreserved in rectangular form by racking-stays extending across theangles and through the sills and cheek-sills and adapted to preventdistortion of the truck-frame, substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

7. A car-truck with two wheels on each axle and with its sills andsub-sills connected by cross-bars between the wheel-faces and adapted toreceive the wheel brake-shoe bar, with its shoe capable of being movedhorizontally to and from the wheel, substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

8. A car-truck with two wheels on each axle, the sills outside and thesub-sills inside the wheels and the ends of the sub-sills within theextremes of the wheels, and the cross-rails between the wheel-facesconnecting sills and sub-sills, the latter carrying the heads of theshoe sliding bars, with their shoes adapted to move horizontally to andfrom the wheels, all substantially as and for the purpose described.

9. A car-truck carried entirely by its sills attached to pendantsintegral to the axle-box shells, and the sub-sills supported bycrossrails carried by the sills between the wheelfaces, the combinationbeing adapted to the mechanism of the wheel-brake rock-shafts,articulated connecting-rods, shoe sliding bars, and brake-shoes movinghorizontally to and from the wheels, substantially as and for thepurpose described.

10. A car-truck with its sills beneath the axle-journals and secured tothe box-shell pendants by clips surrounding the pendent limbs and thesill ends, the shanks of the clips extending below the sills and throughcoupling-plates, with screw-nuts beneath the coupling-plates, which areflanged to protect the screw-nuts, substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN STEPHENSON.

WVitnesses:

CHARLES E. FosTER, STUART A. STEPHENSON.

